Advertisement snapshot recorder

ABSTRACT

According to various embodiments, techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the storage of an image of a rendered webpage on a storage medium. A first message including a request for a webpage may be transmitted to a web server via a communications interface. The webpage request may generate an advertising opportunity bid request for bids to place an advertisement on the requested webpage. A second message to place a bid on the generated advertising opportunity bid request may be transmitted. Information for rendering the webpage is received in response to the webpage request, and an image of the rendered webpage may be stored on a storage medium.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims benefit under 35 U.S.C.§120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/332,425, filed Jul. 16, 2014 byDouglas Smith, which is herein incorporated by reference for allpurposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to online advertising campaignmanagement and more specifically to the collection and presentation ofimages of online advertisements as presented to client devices.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

In online advertising, computing device users are presented withadvertisements as they browse the internet using a web browser or useweb-enabled applications. Online advertising is an efficient way foradvertisers to convey advertising information to potential purchasers ofgoods and services. It is also an efficient tool fornon-profit/political organizations to increase the awareness in a targetgroup of people. The presentation of an advertisement to a singleinternet user is referred to as an ad impression.

Billions of display ad impressions are presented on a daily basis.Advertisers often try to use ad impressions to reach as many targetedusers as possible. Advertisers may seek an advertiser-specific actionfrom advertisement viewers. For instance, an advertiser may seek to havean advertisement viewer purchase a product, fill out a form, sign up fore-mails, and/or perform some other type of action. An action desired bythe advertiser may also be referred to as a conversion.

After an advertising campaign is configured, advertisements associatedwith the campaign may be placed in potentially many different contexts.For example, an advertisement may be placed in many potentially manydifferent webpages on potentially many different websites. As anotherexample, an advertisement may be placed in many different presentationsof potentially many different web-enabled applications.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in orderto provide a basic understanding of certain embodiments of theinvention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosureand it does not identify key/critical elements of the invention ordelineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to presentsome concepts disclosed herein in a simplified form as a prelude to themore detailed description that is presented later.

In general, certain embodiments of the present invention providemechanisms for storing an image of a rendered webpage including anadvertisement on a storage medium. A first message including a requestfor a webpage may be transmitted to a web server via a communicationsinterface. The webpage request may generate an advertising opportunitybid request for bids to place an advertisement on the requested webpage.A second message to place a bid on the generated advertising opportunitybid request may be transmitted. Information for rendering the webpage isreceived in response to the webpage request, and an image of therendered webpage may be stored on a storage medium.

According to various embodiments, a third message including the image ofthe rendered webpage for presentation may be transmitted to a clientdevice. The third message may include analytics informationcharacterizing web traffic associated with the requested webpage.

In particular embodiments, a third message including an advertisementfor placement in the requested webpage may be transmitted when theplaced bid is successful. The rendered webpage image may include a firstportion generated based on instructions provided by the web server and asecond portion generated based on an advertisement transmitted by thecomputing system.

According to various embodiments, the image of the rendered webpage maybe collected in accordance with online advertising campaignconfiguration instructions that include one or more parameter values forexecuting an online advertising campaign on behalf of an advertiser. Theonline advertising campaign configuration instructions may include afirst instruction designating the requested webpage for rendered webpagecollection. The first instruction may indicate a frequency forcollecting images of the requested webpage.

In some implementations, the second message may be transmitted to a realtime bid exchange operable to present online advertisement inventory forsale on a per-impression basis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whichillustrate particular embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot collectionmethod, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot configurationmethod, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot capturingmethod, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot presentationmethod, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a computing device, configured inaccordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of an advertisement snapshot that may bepresented in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a diagram of a user interface that may be presentedin accordance with one or more embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to some specific examples of theinvention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors forcarrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention isdescribed in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will beunderstood that it is not intended to limit the invention to thedescribed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to coveralternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included withinthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

For example, the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention willbe described in the context of particular techniques and mechanismsrelated to advertising campaigns. However, it should be noted that thetechniques and mechanisms of the present invention apply to a variety ofdifferent computing techniques and mechanisms. In the followingdescription, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the present invention. Particular exampleembodiments of the present invention may be implemented without some orall of these specific details. In other instances, well known processoperations have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarilyobscure the present invention.

Various techniques and mechanisms of the present invention willsometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it shouldbe noted that some embodiments include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. For example, a system uses a processor in a variety ofcontexts. However, it will be appreciated that a system can use multipleprocessors while remaining within the scope of the present inventionunless otherwise noted. Furthermore, the techniques and mechanisms ofthe present invention will sometimes describe a connection between twoentities. It should be noted that a connection between two entities doesnot necessarily mean a direct, unimpeded connection, as a variety ofother entities may reside between the two entities. For example, aprocessor may be connected to memory, but it will be appreciated that avariety of bridges and controllers may reside between the processor andmemory. Consequently, a connection does not necessarily mean a direct,unimpeded connection unless otherwise noted.

Overview

According to various embodiments, techniques and mechanisms describedherein may facilitate the capturing and manipulation of images ofdigital advertisements presented in webpages as part of onlineadvertisement campaigns. An advertising campaign management system maybe configured to manage an online advertising campaign by submittingbids on advertising opportunity bid requests in order to placeadvertisements on webpages provided to client devices. In someinstances, the advertising campaign management system may also act as aclient device in order to collect a snapshot of an advertisement as itis actually rendered in a webpage as a client device. For example, thesystem may first act as a client device to request a webpage, which maygenerate a request for advertisers to bid for placing an advertisementon the webpage provided in response to the request. Then, the system maysubmit a bid to place an advertisement on the webpage that it requested.When the system wins the bid, the system provides the advertisement forplacement on the webpage. Then, the system acting as the client devicereceives the requested webpage with the advertisement that it providedfor placement. The system may then render the webpage and record animage of the rendered page for presentation in a user interface.

Example Embodiments

In recent years, the amount of ad impressions sold through real timebidding (RTB) exchanges has experienced a tremendous growth. RTBexchanges provide a technology for advertisers to algorithmically placea bid on any individual impression through a public auction. Thisfunctionality allows advertisers to buy inventory in a cost effectivemanner and to serve ads to the right person in the right context at theright time. However, in order to realize such functionality, advertisersneed to intelligently evaluate each impression in real time or near realtime. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) provide real time bid optimizationtechniques to help advertisers determine a bid value for each ad requestvery quickly. For instance, a DSP may determine a bid value inmilliseconds for close to a million bids per second.

In order to use the services of a DSP, an advertiser may specify one ormore parameters for an advertising campaign. The advertising campaignmay include features such as a target audience, one or more budgetrestrictions, and one or more advertisements to serve. A budgetrestriction may designate an amount of money that the DSP may and/orshould spend on the purchase of advertising impressions during theexecution of the advertising campaign. The advertisements may includecreative artwork such as video, audio, or image content that is providedto a client device when a bid placed on an advertising impression winsthe auction.

After an advertising campaign is configured, advertisements associatedwith the campaign may be placed in potentially many different contexts.For example, an advertisement may be placed in many potentially manydifferent webpages on potentially many different websites. As anotherexample, an advertisement may be placed in many different presentationsof potentially many different web-enabled applications.

In some instances, some of these contexts may be more or less effectivethan other contexts. For example, an advertisement for an airline may beparticularly ineffective if placed on a webpage that includes a newsstory describing a plane crash. As another example, an advertisement fora beverage may be particularly effective if placed on a webpage thatincludes a news story describing a heat wave. As yet another example,visual presentation elements associated with an advertisement such ascolor tones may be more or less appealing depending on the visualcontext into which the advertisement is placed.

Conventional advertising campaign management techniques facilitate thecollection of analytics data regarding campaign performance. However,not all insights about how an ad performs can be generated fromquantitative data. In some instances, a user may wish to view anadvertisement in the context in which it is presented to an end user ata client device. Analyzing the way in which advertisements in onlineadvertising campaigns appear when actually presented to end users isdifficult using conventional advertising campaign management techniques.

Advertisements including creative artwork are served through RTBadvertisements inventory to a variety of websites and applications in anumber of formats configured by the advertisement agency or campaignmanager. Although a user such as a campaign manager can try to cut andpaste an advertisement into snapshots of web pages where theadvertisement has been known to be served, this is an approximation andnot necessarily an accurate depiction of how the advertisement ispresented at a client device.

According to various embodiments, techniques and mechanisms describedherein may facilitate the capture of images of advertisements presentedin the context in which the advertisements are displayed to end users. Acampaign management system may communicate external ad servers, and byproxy, external publisher websites or applications. The process ofcapturing images of placed advertisements may be automated andstreamlined. For instance, an advertiser may be presented with a libraryor archive of the actual context in which digital marketing wasdisplayed. This information may provide insight into the surroundingwebpage or application content at the time the advertisement waspresented. Alternately, or additionally, this information may provideinsights into aesthetic improvements to be made to the creative artworkitself.

According to various embodiments, techniques and mechanisms describedherein may facilitate the accurate rendering and aggregation of digitaladvertisements. For instance, the look and feel of the advertisements inthe context of the sites where they are served may be captured. Theadvertisement system may act as a client device to request a contextsuch as a website or application view. Then, the advertisement systemmay bid on advertisement placement for the context requested by theclient device. When the bid is won, the system may render the page andcapture an image of the rendered page. The captured image may be storedin the advertisement campaign management system so that a user such as acampaign manager can view, analyze, and download the screen captures. Inthis way, the user may be presented with a clear view as to how theadvertisement is being viewed and/or the ways in which the campaignmight be improved.

In some embodiments, seeing the ad in the page context can lead tochanges in the advertising campaign. For example, a viewer may determinethat text in the advertisement is sometimes illegible, that theadvertisement color scheme clashes with some websites or applicationswhere it is commonly served, that the advertisement content isinappropriate for its context, or that the advertisement content doesnot match a use case associated with the context in which it is served.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot collectionmethod 100, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments. Themethod 100 may be performed at a computing device in communication withan advertisement management system configured to provide services formanaging one or more advertisement campaigns. Examples of devices andsystems in association with the method 100 may be performed are shown inFIGS. 2 and 6.

At 102, an advertising campaign is configured for snapshot collection.According to various embodiments, configuration may be performed when anadvertising campaign is initially set up or may be performed later foran advertising campaign that is otherwise configured. Configuration maybe performed to designate one or more options such as which websites areto be targeted for snapshot collection, a number of snapshots to becollected, or other such features of a campaign. Techniques forconfiguring an advertising campaign for snapshot collection arediscussed in further detail with respect to FIG. 3.

At 104, one or more snapshots are created for the advertising campaign.According to various embodiments, snapshots may be created by initiatinga request for a targeted webpage as a client and then bidding on anadvertising opportunity associated with the request as an advertisingservice provider. When a successful bid is placed, the webpage is servedto the client with the advertisement provided by the advertising serviceprovider. Then, the served webpage is rendered by the client, and animage of the rendered webpage is generated. The image may be stored toan advertisement campaign system for presentation in a user interface.Techniques for creating advertisement snapshots are discussed in furtherdetail with respect to FIG. 4.

At 106, an advertising campaign snapshot is presented in a userinterface. According to various embodiments, a user interface may beconfigured to display one or more advertising campaign snapshots createdas described with respect to operation 104. Then, the user interface mayprovide various options for interacting with the snapshots, such aszooming, cropping, saving, or sending snapshots. Techniques forpresenting advertising campaign snapshots in a user interface arediscussed in further detail with respect to FIG. 5.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot configurationmethod 200, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments. Themethod 200 may be performed at a computing system configured to provideadvertising campaign management services. The method 200 may beperformed in order to determine one or more parameter values thatdesignate how snapshot collection is to be performed for an onlineadvertising campaign. For instance, an online advertising campaign mayinvolve advertisement placement at potentially many different websites.Accordingly, the campaign may be configured to designate parameters suchas which websites and/or webpages are targeted for snapshot collectionand at what frequency snapshots are to be collected from the designatedwebsites and/or webpages.

At 202, an online advertising campaign is identified for snapshotcollection. According to various embodiments, the online advertisingcampaign may be accessed by a user such as a campaign manager at aclient device in communication with an advertising campaign managementsystem. For instance, the user may provide authentication information tothe server and then select a campaign for configuration.

At 204, one or more snapshot target parameters are determined. Accordingto various embodiments, a snapshot target parameter may designate atarget context for collecting an advertisement snapshot. For instance, asnapshot target parameter may indicate a website and/or webpage forwhich an advertisement snapshot is to be collected.

In some embodiments, a snapshot target parameter may be determined atleast in part based on user input. For instance, a user may designate awebpage as a target for collecting advertisement snapshots. The user maybase this designation on, for instance, a perceived importance of thetargeted website to an advertising campaign managed by the user.

In some implementations, a snapshot target parameter may be determinedat least in part based on automatic analysis techniques. For instance,an advertising campaign may be analyzed to identify opportunities forproductive snapshot collection. Production snapshot collectionopportunities may focus on websites in which relatively manyadvertisements have been placed or are likely to be placed. For example,popular news or weather websites may generate many advertisingopportunity bid requests due to high traffic volume and thus be goodcandidates for snapshot collection.

According to various embodiments, various considerations may affectwhether a website is selected for collecting advertisement snapshots.For example, many performance metrics such as click through rate andcost per action are commonly collected for online advertising campaigns.Accordingly, a website that has relatively high or relatively lowperformance metrics may be targeted for snapshot collection. In the caseof a well-performing website, collecting snapshots may help to determinewhy the campaign is doing well. In the case of an under-performingwebsite, collecting snapshots may help to determine why the campaign isdoing poorly.

As another example of a potentially relevant consideration, a websitemay be targeted for snapshot collection based on cost. For instance, ifa website is responsible for a relatively large proportion of the costassociated with an online advertising campaign, then targeting thewebsite for snapshot collection may help to indicate how the budget isbeing spent.

As yet another example, combinations of parameters may be used to selecta website for targeting. For instance, a website that has high trafficbut low performance may be a particularly good target since lowperformance has a relatively larger impact on an advertising campaignfor a high traffic website than for a low traffic website.

As still another example, a website may be targeted for snapshotcollection based on a comparison of performance metrics for the websitebetween different advertising campaigns. For instance, if oneadvertising campaign is performing relatively poorly on one websiterelative to other advertising campaigns, then the website may betargeted for snapshot collection in association with the low-performingcampaign to identify a reason for the low performance.

According to various embodiments, the techniques and mechanismsdescribed herein may be used to target online advertising in a varietyof contexts. For instance, an advertising campaign management system mayinclude an emulator configured to emulate one or more mobile devices.The system may then collect snapshots of advertisements as they arepresented in mobile applications. For instance, the system may transmita request for an advertisement from within an emulated mobileapplication and then generated a rendered image of the resultingpresentation of the mobile application. Such techniques may also beapplied to advertisements presented in other contexts such as onlineadvertisements embedded in desktop applications.

At 206, one or more snapshot frequency parameters are determined.According to various embodiments, a snapshot frequency parameter may bedetermined at least in part based on user input. For example, a user mayindicate a parameter value such as a budget percentage or budget amountto spend on purchasing advertisement inventory for snapshot collection.As another example, a user may indicate a percentage or number ofadvertisement snapshots to collect. For instance, the user may indicatethat a snapshot is to be collected for one in every thousand or tenthousand advertisements placed.

In some implementations, a snapshot frequency parameter may bedetermined at least in part based on automatic analysis techniques. Forinstance, webpages may be selected for more or less frequent bidplacement based at least in part on any of the factors identified withrespect to operation 204.

At 208, the parameter values are stored. In some embodiments, theparameter values may be stored on a storage medium associated with anadvertising campaign management system. For instance, the parametervalues may be stored in association with information characterizing theonline advertising campaign identified in operation 202. Then, theparameter values may be retrieved as part of a procedure for capturingadvertisement snapshots, as discussed with respect to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot capturingmethod 300, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments. Themethod 300 may be performed at an advertising campaign management systemconfigured to manage an online advertising campaign on behalf of anadvertiser. For instance, the method 300 may be performed in conjunctionwith one or more other procedures for managing an advertising campaign.

At 302, a request to perform advertisement snapshot collection for anonline advertising campaign is received. In some embodiments, the method300 may be performed continually, at scheduled times, upon request, orperiodically. For instance, the method 300 may be performed inaccordance with the frequency parameters as discussed with respect tooperation 206 in FIG. 2.

At 304, snapshot collection configuration information for the onlineadvertising campaign is identified. According to various embodiments,the snapshot collection configuration image may be identified byretrieving the information generated in association with theadvertisement snapshot configuration method 200 discussed with respectto FIG. 2. For instance, the configuration information may be identifiedby transmitting an indication of the online advertising campaigndiscussed with respect to operation 302 to a server or storage systemconfigured to store configuration information.

At 306, a webpage is selected for advertisement snapshot capture.According to various embodiments, the webpage may be selected based onsnapshot target parameters and/or snapshot frequency parameters includedin the snapshot collection configuration information. As discussed withrespect to FIG. 2, this information may designate webpages of whichsnapshots are to be collected and indicate a frequency for collectingsnapshots from the targeted pages.

At 308, a request for the selected webpage is transmitted. In someembodiments, the request may be transmitted to a web server configuredto provide access to the requested webpage. For instance, a domain nameassociated with the requested webpage may be used to query a DNS server,which may provide an IP address for accessing the web server. Then, arequest message may be transmitted over a network such as the Internetto the identified web server. The request may indicate the specificwebpage requested and identify an address for providing a response tothe request.

At 310, an indication of an advertising opportunity bid request isreceived. According to various embodiments, the advertising opportunitybid request may be received in a message transmitted by a real time bidexchange. A real time bid exchange is a system configured to providereal time auctions to purchase advertising inventory on webpagesprovided to client devices. When the webpage requested transmitted atoperation 308 is received by the web server, the web server may transmitto the real time bid exchange information about the webpage request.This information may then allow the real time bid exchange to create anauction for advertising opportunities on the requested webpage. The realtime bid exchange may then transmit advertising opportunity bid requestmessages to advertising campaign management systems, which may thentransmit bid messages to bid on the advertising opportunity.

In some implementations, the advertisement management system may includean identifier in the request for the webpage transmitted at operation308. Then, when the system receives the advertising opportunity bidrequest at operation 310, the system may determine that the bid requestcorresponds to the webpage request by identifying the identifier asbeing included in the bid request message.

At 312, a bid is submitted in response to the advertising opportunitybid request received at operation 310. In some embodiments, the bid maybe transmitted to the real time bid exchange. In some instances, thevalue of the placed bid may be consistent with a bidding strategyassociated with the online advertising campaign. Alternately, the valueof the placed bid may be set higher or lower than the normal biddingstrategy. For example, the value of the placed bid may be set relativelyhigher in order to achieve a greater probability of successful bidplacement.

At 314, a determination is made as to whether the placed bid issuccessful. In some embodiments, the bid placed as discussed inoperation 312 may be successful if it is the highest bid than the otherbids received by the real time bid exchange in response to theadvertising opportunity bid request received at operation 310, which mayhave also been received by other entities that submitted bids.

According to various embodiments, the determination at 314 may be madeat least in part based on communications received or not received from areal time bid exchange. For instance, after the bid is placed asdiscussed in operation 312, the real time bid exchange may transmit amessage if the bid is successful. Alternately, or additionally, the realtime bid exchange may transmit a message if the bid is not successful.If the placed bid is not successful in winning the auction, the methodmay continue to select webpages for advertisement snapshot capture asdiscussed with respect to operation 308.

At 316, an advertisement is transmitted for placement in the requestedwebpage. In some embodiments, the advertisement may be transmitted tothe real time bid exchange, which may provide the advertisement to theweb server for including in a webpage provided in response to therequest submitted as discussed in operation 308. Alternately, theadvertisement may be transmitted to a web server responsible forproviding access to the requested webpage.

At 318, information for rendering the requested webpage is received.According to various embodiments, the information for rendering therequested webpage may include, for instance, one or more messages thatcontain content such as computer programming code and/or markup. Forexample, the webpage may be generated as an HTML object that may includecomputer programming code written in a scripting language such asJavaScript.

In some implementations, the information received at operation 318 maybe received from the web server to which the request for the webpage wastransmitted at operation 308. The information may include theadvertisement transmitted at operation 316.

At 320, the webpage is rendered based on the received information.According to various embodiments, the webpage may be rendered by anysuitable program for generating an image of the webpage based on theinformation received at operation 318. For example, the webpage may berendered by a web browser. As another example, the webpage may berendered by a server-side rendering program such as PhantomJS orWkhtmltoimage, both freely available open source toolkits.

In some embodiments, rendering the webpage may involve analyzing theinformation received at operation 318 to produce an image. The image mayinclude visual components provided by the web server that transmittedthe information as discussed at operation 318. The image may alsoinclude the advertisement transmitted at operation 316 placed in itsappropriate location within the page. In this way, the advertisement maybe displayed in its natural context in the same manner in which it mightbe presented to an advertisement audience member.

At 322, the webpage image is stored in a storage system. According tovarious embodiments, the webpage image may be stored in a storage systemassociated with the online advertising campaign management system. Forinstance, the webpage image may be stored in association with the onlineadvertising campaign discussed with respect to operation 302 so that theimage may later be retrieved for presentation in a user interface.Techniques for presenting an advertisement snapshot are discussed infurther detail with respect to FIGS. 4, 6, and 7.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an advertisement snapshot presentationmethod 400, performed in accordance with one or more embodiments. Themethod 400 may be performed at a client device in communication with anadvertising campaign management system. The method 400 may be performedin order to allow a user to view and manipulate advertisement snapshotscaptured as discussed with respect to FIG. 4.

At 402, a website is identified for advertisement snapshot presentation.According to various embodiments, a website may be identified via any ofvarious techniques. For example, a website may be identified via userinput. In this case, a user accessing an advertising campaign managementsystem may indicate one or more websites for which advertisementsnapshots are to be presented. As another example, an advertisingcampaign may be identified based on account authentication information.Then, a website for which a snapshot has been collected in associationwith the identified account may be automatically identified by thesystem.

At 404, one or more advertisement snapshots associated with theidentified website is selected. According to various embodiments, anadvertisement snapshot may be selected by transmitting a message to asnapshot management system. The message may indicate the websiteidentified at operation 402 and include a request for snapshotsassociated with the identified website.

In some embodiments, more than one snapshot associated with the websitemay be available. In this case, the snapshots to display may bestrategically selected based on any of a variety of factors that mayinclude, but are not limited to: user input, timestamp data indicatingwhen snapshots were collected, similarity data identifying similaritiesor differences between the snapshots, or any other relevant information.For example, the snapshots selected may be drawn primarily from recentlycollected snapshots. As another example, similarity data may be used topresent snapshots drawn from different webpages or snapshots havingdifferent content. In this way, a user may be presented with arelatively broader cross-section of advertisement contexts.

At 406, analytics information associated with the identified website isdetermined. In some embodiments, analytics information may be determinedby retrieving the analytics information from an advertising managementsystem. For instance, the advertising management system may provideadvertising-related services such as advertisement placement, webtraffic analysis, and snapshot management for the website. The analyticsinformation may be retrieved from the advertising management system bytransmitting a message to the advertising management system identifyingthe website.

At 408, the identified snapshots and the analytics information arepresented in a user interface. According to various embodiments,presenting the snapshots and analytics information in the user interfacemay involve transmitting an instruction to a client device configured topresent such an interface. For instance, a webpage including the userinterface may be loaded in a web browser at a client device. An exampleof a user interface for presenting snapshots and analytics informationis shown in FIG. 7.

At 410, an indication of user input related to the presented snapshotsis received. According to various embodiments, the user input mayinclude a request to delete, save, send, or otherwise manipulate a fileassociated with a snapshot. Alternately, or additionally, the user inputmay include a request to zoom in, zoom out, crop, edit, or otherwisemanipulate a snapshot image.

At 412, a message that includes the indicated user input is transmitted.According to various embodiments, the message may be transmitted todifferent recipients depending on factors such as the configuration ofthe system and the location of the computing system on which the method400 is performed. For example, the message may be transmitted to aserver configured to manager advertisement snapshots. As anotherexample, the message may be transmitted to a storage medium at thecomputing device configured to store user input. For instance, userinput may be stored for updating the representation displayed in theuser interface.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a computing device. According toparticular embodiments, a system 500 suitable for implementingparticular embodiments of the present invention includes a processor501, a memory 503, an interface 511, and a bus 515 (e.g., a PCI bus orother interconnection fabric) and operates as server, client device, orany other device or service described herein. Various speciallyconfigured devices can also be used in place of a processor 501 or inaddition to processor 501. The interface 511 is typically configured tosend and receive data packets over a network.

Particular examples of interfaces supported include Ethernet interfaces,frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ringinterfaces, and the like. In addition, various very high-speedinterfaces may be provided such as fast Ethernet interfaces, GigabitEthernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces,FDDI interfaces and the like. Generally, these interfaces may includeports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In somecases, they may also include an independent processor and, in someinstances, volatile RAM. Although a particular server is described, itshould be recognized that a variety of alternative configurations arepossible.

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of an advertisement snapshot that may bepresented in accordance with one or more embodiments. The advertisementsnapshot image 602 shown in FIG. 6 is an example of the type of imagethat may be collected as discussed herein. The snapshot image 602 may becollected in order to present an advertisement as it appears in anactual webpage presented at a client device.

According to various embodiments, the snapshot may be stored in adigital image format. For instance, a digital image format such as thePortable Network Graphics (PNG) image format, the Joint PhotographicExperts Group (JPEG, JPG) image format, or any other suitable format forstoring digital images may be used. In particular embodiments, an imageformat may be strategically selected based on considerations such asdesired image resolution, desired file size, compression capabilities,and/or the characteristics of the digital snapshot management system.

According to various embodiments, a snapshot image may include anadvertisement and one or more visual display portions. For instance, thesnapshot image 602 includes the advertisement 604 and the webpageportions 606 and 606. By viewing the image 602, a user may view arealistic portrayal of an actual presentation of the advertisement 606on a webpage. For instance, the snapshot image 602 may correspond to anews or weather page, and the webpage portions 606 and 608 maycorrespond to webpage components such as headlines, articles, images, orother content associated with the webpage. The advertisement 604 maycorrespond to an advertisement provided by the advertising campaignmanagement system after submitting a winning bid to a bid request forbids to place an advertisement on the webpage 602. It should be notedthat webpages may have many different features and configurations, andthe webpage configuration shown in FIG. 6 is only one example of themany types of webpage configurations that may appear in snapshot images.

FIG. 7 illustrates a diagram of a user interface 702 that may bepresented in accordance with one or more embodiments. The user interface702 may be presented in order to allow a user to view, edit, store, orotherwise manipulate webpage snapshots. For instance, the user interface702 may be generated as discussed with respect to FIG. 6.

In FIG. 7, a user interface 702 presents several webpage snapshots,including the snapshots 704, 706, 708, 710, 712, and 714. The userinterface 702 includes an analytics dialog 716. According to variousembodiments, an analytics dialog may be presented for different webpagesor webpage snapshots, for instance by clicking on a webpage snapshot orotherwise selecting a webpage snapshot.

In some implementations, an analytics dialog may provide providesvarious information and opportunities related to a selected webpage. Forinstance, the analytics dialog 716 indicates a webpage name and URLassociated with the webpage from which the webpage snapshot 710 wastaken. The analytics dialog 716 also includes a “View Site List” button720. The button 720 may be used to view websites associated with anadvertising campaign, such as websites for which snapshot collection hasbeen configured.

According to various embodiments, an analytics dialog may displayanalytics information about a webpage. For instance, the analyticsdialog 716 includes the analytics information window 718. The analyticsinformation window may display information such as web traffic analysis,visitor demographics information, or other types of collected dataassociated with the selected website.

Although many of the components and processes are described above in thesingular for convenience, it will be appreciated by one of skill in theart that multiple components and repeated processes can also be used topractice the techniques of the present invention.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of thedisclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention beinterpreted to include all variations and equivalents that fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: generating via a processor afirst message requesting a webpage, the first message including adesignated message identifier, the designated message identifier beingassociated with a designated advertisement; transmitting the firstmessage via a communications interface to a web page content serverconfigured to serve the requested webpage; receiving from a bid serveran advertising opportunity bid request for bids on a real-time auctionto place an advertisement on the requested webpage, the advertisingopportunity bid request including the designated message identifier;generating a second message to place a bid to transmit the designatedadvertisement for presentation on the requested webpage; transmittingthe second message to the bid server via the communications interface;determining that the bid placed via the second message won the real-timeauction; receiving information for rendering the requested webpage fromthe web page content server, the information including a link to thedesignated advertisement; rendering the requested webpage such that thedesignated advertisement appears on the requested webpage; and storingan image of the rendered webpage on a storage medium, the image of therendered webpage including the designated advertisement.
 2. The methodrecited in claim 1, the method further comprising: transmitting a thirdmessage to a client device, the third message including the image of therendered webpage for presentation on the client device.
 3. The methodrecited in claim 2, wherein the third message includes analyticsinformation characterizing web traffic associated with the requestedwebpage.
 4. The method recited in claim 1, the method furthercomprising: when the placed bid is successful, transmitting a thirdmessage including an advertisement for placement in the requestedwebpage.
 5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the rendered webpageimage includes a first portion generated based on instructions providedby the web server and a second portion generated based on anadvertisement transmitted by the computing system.
 6. The method recitedin claim 1, wherein the image of the rendered webpage is collected inaccordance with online advertising campaign configuration instructions,the online advertising campaign configuration instructions including oneor more parameter values for executing an online advertising campaign onbehalf of an advertiser.
 7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein theonline advertising campaign configuration instructions include a firstinstruction for rendered webpage collection, the first instructiondesignating the requested webpage.
 8. The method recited in claim 7,wherein the first instruction indicates a frequency for collectingimages of the requested webpage.
 9. The method recited in claim 1, themethod further comprising: generating the image of the rendered webpageat the computing system via server-side webpage rendering software. 10.A system comprising: a processor configured to: generate a first messagerequesting a webpage and including a designated message identifierassociated with a designated advertisement, receive from a bid server anadvertising opportunity bid request for bids on a real-time auction toplace an advertisement on the requested webpage, generate a secondmessage to place a bid to transmit the designated advertisement forpresentation on the requested webpage, determine that the bid placed viathe second message won the real-time auction, and render the requestedwebpage such that the designated advertisement appears on the requestedwebpage; a communications interface configured to: transmit the firstmessage to a web page content server configured to serve the requestedwebpage, transmit the first message to the bid server, and receiveinformation for rendering the requested webpage from the web pagecontent server, the information including a link to the designatedadvertisement; and a storage medium configured to store an image of therendered webpage on a storage medium, the image of the rendered webpageincluding the designated advertisement.
 11. The system recited in claim10, wherein the communications interface is further configured totransmit a third message to a client device, the third message includingthe image of the rendered webpage for presentation on the client device.12. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the third message includesanalytics information characterizing web traffic associated with therequested webpage.
 13. The system recited in claim 10, wherein thecommunications interface is further configured to transmit, when theplaced bid is successful, a third message including an advertisement forplacement in the requested webpage.
 14. The system recited in claim 13,wherein the rendered webpage image includes a first portion generatedbased on instructions provided by the web server and a second portiongenerated based on an advertisement transmitted by the computing system.15. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the image of the renderedwebpage is collected in accordance with online advertising campaignconfiguration instructions, the online advertising campaignconfiguration instructions including one or more parameter values forexecuting an online advertising campaign on behalf of an advertiser. 16.The system recited in claim 15, wherein the online advertising campaignconfiguration instructions include a first instruction for renderedwebpage collection, the first instruction designating the requestedwebpage.
 17. The system recited in claim 16, wherein the firstinstruction indicates a frequency for collecting images of the requestedwebpage.
 18. One or more non-transitory computer readable media havinginstructions stored thereon for performing a method, the methodcomprising: generating via a processor a first message requesting awebpage, the first message including a designated message identifier,the designated message identifier being associated with a designatedadvertisement; transmitting the first message via a communicationsinterface to a web page content server configured to serve the requestedwebpage; receiving from a bid server an advertising opportunity bidrequest for bids on a real-time auction to place an advertisement on therequested webpage, the advertising opportunity bid request including thedesignated message identifier; generating a second message to place abid to transmit the designated advertisement for presentation on therequested webpage; transmitting the second message to the bid server viathe communications interface; determining that the bid placed via thesecond message won the real-time auction; receiving information forrendering the requested webpage from the web page content server, theinformation including a link to the designated advertisement; renderingthe requested webpage such that the designated advertisement appears onthe requested webpage; and storing an image of the rendered webpage on astorage medium, the image of the rendered webpage including thedesignated advertisement.
 19. The one or more non-transitory computerreadable media recited in claim 18, wherein the method furthercomprises: transmitting a third message to a client device, the thirdmessage including the image of the rendered webpage for presentation onthe client device.
 20. The one or more non-transitory computer readablemedia recited in claim 19, wherein the third message includes analyticsinformation characterizing web traffic associated with the requestedwebpage.